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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Alexandre Tharaud plays Scarlatti
“I love the extravagance, the sunny glow, the light touch of Scarlatti,” says French pianist Alexandre Tharaud, whose second Virgin Classics release is a collection of the composer’s captivating and adventurous keyboard sonatas. His first release, the Chopin recital Journal intime was described by The Guardian as “altogether breathtakingly beautiful”. “Listening to Mr. Tharaud's crisply articulated and vividly etched playing, a listener might guess that he is a Baroque specialist who, for some reason, prefers the modern piano to the harpsichord. But … Baroque music is only one of his interests,” wrote the New York Times in 2005. In typically imaginative fashion, Tharaud combined early Romanticism with the Baroque over the 2009-10 season when he toured a recital programme of works by Chopin – the subject of Virgin Classics release, Journal intime – and selections from Domenico Scarlatti’s canon of 555 keyboard sonatas. “I love the extravagance, the sunny glow, the light touch of Scarlatti, who shares with Chopin a precise sense for ornamentation, a culture of beauty in sound and an intimate rapport with the audience,” he says. Tharaud’s previous exploration of the Baroque repertoire has focused on composers such as Couperin and Rameau, whose music is rarely heard on the modern piano. The tradition of Scarlatti on the piano is much more firmly established – Vladimir Horowitz, for instance, would often include his music in recitals – but Tharaud draws inspiration from developments in historically informed performance over the past 30 years. As he told the French magazine Télérama: “I am not sure that authenticity is conferred by a specific instrument, but rather in the way new life is imbued into this music … Baroque musicians have taught us to approach tempi and ornamentation with a sense of freedom, even audacity.” Scarlatti, born in Naples, spent more than 30 years of his life serving the royal families of Portugal and Spain and died in Madrid. His sonatas are concise, captivating one-movement works in binary form, often adventurous in their use of harmony and modulation, and frequently inhabited by the exotic spirit of Iberian folk music. “Whether on a broad canvas or on a miniature one, Tharaud’s feel for tonal colouring and his eloquence of expression are a perfect match for this inspiring, kaleidoscopic music.” That praise from the Daily Telegraph could almost apply to works by Scarlatti, but in fact came from a review of Tharaud’s Chopin album, Journal intime. More specific in its frame of reference was The Guardian’s comment on the Chopin disc: “Alexandre Tharaud explores a huge emotional range in his Journal intime, including the most thrilling and propulsive first ballade since Michelangeli's version, with a deeply intense C sharp minor nocturne at the heart. Tharaud lifts the music across the bar-lines with deft rubato, his sound clear, shining and sensuous; altogether breathtakingly beautiful.” “Tharaud's attention to musical detail is, as ever, combined with total spontaneity. The recorded sound adds warmth and this is a wonderfully original reimagining of repertory and instrument.” The Observer, 30th January 2011 “The biggest surprise on this wonderfully exuberant and exhilarating disc comes with the very first notes: the piano tone is rich and full...There's never a dull moment, and Tharaud's range of touch and colour, and his sheer enthusiasm, shine through every jewel-like piece.” The Guardian, 3rd February 2011 ***** “The fact that Scarlatti used the same two-part structural template for all his sonatas is camouflaged by his vast imaginative range, a fertile mind that Tharaud taps and illuminates absorbingly in this recital...The diversity is captivating and Tharaud is a consummate master of it.” The Telegraph, 11th February 2011 ***** “if Tharaud is evidently aware of the stylistic insights afforded by the scholarly diggings of the past few decades, he's unrepentantly pianistic in his approach...Tharaud's is playing with personality, revelling in Scarlatti's playful inventiveness and pungent harmonic daring.” BBC Music Magazine, March 2011 ***** “The range is extraordinary, from the almost casual, plaintive charm of the K132, with its elegant trills and thoughtful progressions, to the dashing Iberian brilliance of the K420, and the more virtuosic manner of the K72 - three wildly differing explorations of the key of C major, handled with a deft, easy grace and an appropriate dash of wit.” The Independent, 18th February 2011 **** “Tharaud’s choices make for an exhilarating rollercoaster ride between dizzying feats of heady bravura and more gentle moments where introspection and quasi-operatic cantabile playing are required...The playing and musicianship of this young Frenchman are dazzling throughout.” Sunday Times, 27th February 2011 ***** “Tharaud commands an impressive range of timbres and articulations with a crisp technique which enables him to express melodic tenderness as tellingly as hard-edged brilliance and clarity.” Gramophone Magazine, April 2011 “The tipsy downward flourishes which interrupt the singing line of K132 suggest Tharaud improvising dreamily in a tapas bar. Best of all is the tiny two-minute aria which forms K32, a gorgeous moment of calm which hints at what Bach’s keyboard music might have sounded like had he lived in warmer climes. The close-up recording adds to the fun.” Graham Rickson, The Arts Desk, 7th May 2011  BBC Music Magazine
Instrumental Choice - March 2011 |
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| |  | Scarlatti - Piano Sonatas
“performances of a superlative vitality and super-fine sensitivity” Gramophone “This generously packed CD is sheer delight from start to finish. Even with recorded selections available from the likes of Horowitz, Pletnev, Schiff and Pogorelich, the 25-year-old Russian pianist Yevgeny Sudbin makes his solo debut on disc with performances of a superlative vitality and super-fine sensitivity.
His choice of sonatas is richly enterprising, pinpointing their infinite variety, their abrupt changes of mood and direction, so that whether familiar or unfamiliar (and there are many unfamiliar numbers), each offering is a delectable surprise. Free from the nervous tension that can sometimes plague him in the concert hall, Sudbin relishes the way Scarlatti turns convention topsy-turvy, presenting him in both performance and his affectionate accompanying essay as one of music's most ardent and life-affirming adventurers. He's brilliant and incisive in Kk545, and makes every bar of the reflective Kk57 glisten with poetry. What thrumming guitars he evokes in Kk435 and 487, reminding us that Scarlatti forsook his native Italy and later Portugal for a heady addiction to all things Spanish.
There are spicy and witty imitations of changing registrations and some notably rumbustious closes to make every facet of these diamond-like sonatas spark and scintillate as if new-minted.
This is, arguably, among the finest, certainly most enjoyable of all Scarlatti recitals. As a crowning touch Sudbin is heard in a beautifully warm and natural acoustic.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 “…there is plenty to enjoy in Sudbin's expressive, rhythmic and thoughtful playing, virtues which come together rewardingly in the Sonata in B minor (K87).” BBC Music Magazine, May 2005 *** “Sudbin finds, besides much to charm the ear, an infinite expressive depth in many of the minor key works, which are played here with appealing expressive freedom...There is sparkle and brilliance here too, and Sudbin can be both strong and delectably light-fingered. He is recorded splendidly, and this can be placed among the finest and most generous of recent single-disc Scarlatti collections.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Italian Harpsichord Music of the 18th Century
This CD gives us a tour of 18th Century Italian harpsichord music, both historically and geographically. It includes works by Durante and Cimarosa, both from Naples, Martini from Bologna and Galuppi from Venice. Roberto Giordano performs throughout the world and a film-portrait of him has been broadcast in many countries including the UK. | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Handel & Scarlatti
The 1772 Kirckman harpsichord in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | The Piano G & T’s - Volume 4Recordings from the Gramophone and Typewriter era (1900-1908)
Brahms: | Ballade in G minor, Op. 118, No. 3 Waltz, Op. 39 No. 2 in E major Waltz, Op. 39 No. 15 in A flat major | Chopin: | Nocturne No. 8 in D flat major, Op. 27 No. 2 Polonaise No. 3 in A major, Op. 40 No. 1 'Military' Prelude Op. 28 No. 1 in C major Étude Op. 10 No. 1 in C major Impromptu No. 4 in C sharp minor, Op. 66 'Fantaisie-Impromptu' | Dièmer, L: | Grande valse de concert Chant du Nautonier | Godard, B: | Valse chromatique | Grieg: | Norwegian Bridal Procession, Op. 19, No. 2 | Handel: | Keyboard Suite, HWV 430 in E major 'The Harmonious Blacksmith': Air & Variations | Liszt: | Liebestraum, S541 No. 3 (Nocturne in A flat major) Grandes Études de Paganini (6), S. 141 (No. 3) | Mendelssohn: | Song without Words, Op. 67 No. 4 in C major 'Spinning Song' or 'Bee's Wedding' Song without Words, Op. 19b No. 3 in A major 'Hunting Song' Song without Words, Op. 62 No. 6 in A major 'Spring Song' | Rachmaninov: | Prelude Op. 3 No. 2 in C sharp minor | Scarlatti, D: | Keyboard Sonata K20 in E major Keyboard Sonata K14 in G major | Schubert: | Marche Militaire, D733 No. 1 Erlkönig, D328 | Weber: | Perpetuum Mobile (Rondo from Piano Sonata in C major, Op. 24) |
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| |  | Scarlatti, D: Sonatas for Harpsichord
Wladyslaw Klosiewic (harpsichord) | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | Domenico Scarlatti: Sonatas
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| |  | Scarlatti - Complete Keyboard Sonatas Volume 2
“Michael Lewin is an American pianist as dexterous and assured as he's audacious. Here there's no sense of 'studio' caution but only of liberating and dazzling music-making, live and on the wing. Kk492 in D could hardly provide a more brilliant curtain-raiser, and in Kk3 in A minor (the one where Scarlatti's impish humour offers the musical equivalent of someone slipping on a banana skin) Lewin's playing positively brims over with high spirits. The D major Sonata, Kk33, is all thrumbing guitars and bursts of sunlight and in Kk141, with its cascades of repeated notes, Lewin even gives Martha Argerich a run for her money. There's a no less appealing balm and musical quality in the more restrained numbers such as Kk32 in D minor and Kk208 in A, though the recital comes to a suitably ebullient conclusion with Kk517 in D minor which is here like a river in full spate.
The New York-based recordings are suitably lively. Not even the most persistent lover of Scarlatti on the harpsichord could accuse Michael Lewin of an absence of the necessary glitter, panache and stylistic awareness.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 “A promising start to another colossal series, the complete sonatas of Scarlatti, here performed with panache by Michael Lewin.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2000 | | | (also available to download from $6.00) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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Alexander Brailowsky (Piano) “This will be a revelation to those who remember Brailowsky from his post-war recordings... Here preserved in excellent transfers, he shows himself a first-rank artist... Spontaneity and subtlety permeate this excellent release.” Classical Pulse | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Vladimir Horowitz plays Great Sonatas
Barber, S: | Piano Sonata, Op. 26 | Beethoven: | Piano Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 2 ‘Moonlight' Piano Sonata No. 21 in C major, Op. 53 'Waldstein' Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 'Appassionata' Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13 'Pathetique' Piano Sonata No. 7 in D major, Op. 10 No. 3 Piano Sonata No. 28 in A major, Op. 101 | Chopin: | Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 35 'Marche funèbre' | Clementi: | Sonata in C Major, Op. 33 No. 3 Sonata in B flat Major, Op. 25 No. 3 II Rondo. Vivace Sonata in A major Op. 50 No. 1 II Adagio sostenuto e patetico Sonata in E flat Major, Op. 12 No. 2 III Rondo. Allegro assai | Haydn: | Piano Sonata No. 59 in E flat major, Hob.XVI:49 Piano Sonata No. 38 in F major, Hob.XVI:23 Piano Sonata No. 58 in C major, Hob.XVI:48 | Kabalevsky: | Piano Sonata No. 3 in F major, Op. 46 | Liszt: | Piano Sonata in B minor, S178 | Mozart: | Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major, K331 'Alla Turca' Piano Sonata No. 12 in F major, K332 | Prokofiev: | Piano Sonata No. 7 in B flat major, Op. 83 | Rachmaninov: | Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 36 | Scarlatti, D: | Keyboard Sonata K33 in D Major Keyboard Sonata K54 in A minor Keyboard Sonata K525 in F major Keyboard Sonata K466 in F minor Keyboard Sonata K146 in G major Keyboard Sonata K96 in D major Keyboard Sonata K162 in E major Keyboard Sonata K474 in E flat major Keyboard Sonata K198 in E minor Keyboard Sonata K491 in D major Keyboard Sonata K481 in F minor Keyboard Sonata K39 in A major Keyboard Sonata K547 in G major Keyboard Sonata K197 in B minor Keyboard Sonata K25 in F sharp minor Keyboard Sonata K52 in D minor Keyboard Sonata K201 in G major Keyboard Sonata K303 in C minor Keyboard Sonata K319 in F sharp major Keyboard Sonata K260 in G major Keyboard Sonata K380 in E major Keyboard Sonata K55 in G major Keyboard Sonata K531 in E major Keyboard Sonata K322 in A major Keyboard Sonata K455 in G major Keyboard Sonata K127 in A flat major Keyboard Sonata K101 in A major Keyboard Sonata K184 in F minor Keyboard Sonata K87 in B minor Keyboard Sonata K135 in E major Keyboard Sonata K46 in E major Keyboard Sonata K20 in E major | Schubert: | Piano Sonata No. 21 in B flat major, D960 | Schumann: | Piano Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Op. 14 'Concerto Without Orchestra' | Scriabin: | Piano Sonata No. 5 in F sharp major, Op. 53 Piano Sonata No. 9, Op. 68 'Black Mass' Piano Sonata No. 10, Op. 70 Piano Sonata No. 3 in F sharp minor, Op. 23 |
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